AC Milan president Paolo Scaroni has explained why the current San Siro cannot be renovated and also why there will be more corporate seats at the new stadium.
There are a number of key issues that must be ironed out in relation to the new stadium such as the capacity, given that Milan have had over 70,000 fans present at all bar one home game this season, which makes the decision to have a new home with maximum of 60-65,000 seem quite a prohibitive move.
When clubs abroad build new stadiums or renovate their current ones, the Rossoneri and Nerazzurri have chosen the opposite path by aiming to always fill the stadium and sell more executive tickets at higher prices, thereby increasing revenues. Today 4% of the San Siro (3,000 or maximum 3,500 seats) are corporate, but that will become 9,000 basic (15%) at least and may even become 13,500 at the new stadium.
Scaroni spoke during the latest meeting in the public debate process and he answered some questions related to the new project that Milan aim to carry out along with Inter. MilanNews relayed his comments.
On ticket prices for the new stadium: “In order to continue to offer our fans cheap tickets at the stadium, at today’s price level, we need to build a part in the new stadium that we call corporate that offers companies seats to be able to attend an event in a completely different way than today, as happens all over the world.
“We expect between 8 and 10 thousand corporate seats, with prices that will have nothing to do with the prices for the public, offering companies and sponsors a whole show. On the one hand it improves the club finances and on the other hand it allows us to maintain the price for the fans, I am thinking for example of the Curva Sud, which will have advantageous entry conditions within their reach.”
On competitiveness in Europe: “There is incredible competitiveness in the world of football in Europe: the two Milanese clubs want to continue to be leaders in European football. It is not enough to be in Italy, we want Milan to play an important role in European football. But it is difficult without financial means to compete at those levels.
“When we tackled the stadium project, we faced all the hypotheses including restructuring it. We analysed the situation with experts and stadium technicians, one of the reasons we decided not to renovate it was that it would never have become the stadium that these years require for clubs like ours. San Siro as it is could not be renovated for the third time, so we discarded this hypothesis.”
On the new stadium: “We put our experts to work, assuming a new stadium at San Siro that meets all the economic and financial requirements. We have 1.3 billion in investment in mind, an important figure that we would spend on public land with a capital that would be foreign, given that our two clubs are foreign owned.
“And we will continue to have, while the stadium is being built, a competitive activity that will allow us to continue to have revenues and continue to maintain Milan as the capital of Italian football.”
On the comparison with Chelsea: “We lost to Chelsea yesterday, I don’t want to talk about football but about money: Chelsea collects from the stadium more than double what Milan collects. I was at Stamford Bridge, I saw how it is structured that among other things it is in central London, it certainly does not have the spaces of other facilities but in any case Chelsea is clearly more than double that of Milan.
“Competing with clubs that have much higher financial means than ours makes us leave in a state of inferiority. Money is not everything, but it plays a very big role. We want to equip Milan and Inter with a stadium that allows us to have revenues and offer the spectacle that our European competitors have.”
Stadium needs to be 60k for fans and 15k for corporate, that’s 75k capacity minimum. You really have to milk the corporate side for your stadium to make money and have lower fan ticket prices.
Agree
Sounds like a plan. You got my vote.
The idea of low ticket prices for the “average” man is stuff is dreams and anti-free market. Markets dictate who is willing to pay and for what price. It is difficult to offer tickets based on means-testing (ie offer cheap prices to low income earners) . Besides that’s price discrimination (there is price discrimination but clubs do it in disguise not explicitly like corporate seating). There is nothing preventing someone with higher incomes from purchasing tickets at lower prices. Another way out of it is by a lottery system which *may* capture low income folks but I’m not a fan of that either. Then there is the issue of resale tickets but I’m not sure if that’s allowed in Milan. A larger seating capacity stadium isn’t going to make the situation better, it just means being prepared to see some empty seats for the smaller games….and that’s not going for selling your product or for atmosphere. We’re only doing numbers now because we had big games early..when the entire season is accounted for you’ll get a better picture in the AVERAGE attendance rather than one-offs
If stadium is 60k with 10k corporate that leaves 50k for fans, we have 42k season ticket holders that leave 8k free, you really think that 8k is enough for open sale at a regular league match let alone a CL match during the week? This is not about low income or high income people, it’s about regular tickets being available, and the average attendance you are talking about is from the last 10 years during one of our worst periods with no CL football. If we are in the cl and playing competitive then we fill a 75k stadium week in week out no problem (including corporate sales) imo
“This is not about low income or high income people, it’s about regular tickets being available” what do u mean regular tickets? Tix past the season holders? Genuine question. I think the problem is thinking building a stadium capacity based on peak numbers in our big games rather than during normal times or averages.
The average attendance I’m talking about is from the recent big games and season opener which has inflated the typical average. You can’t really use the highest attendances as it skews the logic into thinking we sell out all the time when we dont. We didn’t even sell out vs league leaders Napoli based on the current capacity. We’ve only “sold out” the current 75.9k stadium thrice (Chelsea, Juve and Inter). I use inverted commas because technically we haven’t had a max attendance on any games based on the stadiums max capacity of 75,923 but they may have been sold out. We’re in UCL and competitive We didn’t fill San Siro vs Dinamo Zagreb. We only did 61k, so no, I don’t subscribe to the idea that we’ll easily fill a 70k stadium week in week out.
During Kaka, Pirlo, Seedorf’s … extremely competitive UCL era …our average was around 55- 60k and that’s with a stunning all star squad. Last season our average was 44k. We haven’t touched 60k average in a very very long time. Remember the Empolis and Sampdorias brings in low attendance figures and yet to be played. But I’ll give you that we’re doing subscription numbers like 03-07 without the stars.
Everytime I see an attendance article it boils my brain because the stats used and economics of pricing are so flawed.
“During Kaka, Pirlo, Seedorf’s … extremely competitive UCL era …our average was around 55- 60k and that’s with a stunning all star squad. Last season our average was 44k. We haven’t touched 60k average in a very very long time. ”
The thing is that during that time Milan fans were used to being on top and having great players. After this miserable ~decade without UCL & star players the fans now know to appreciate the recent success on the pitch. I’m sure as long as the team can keep up this level the fans will be there to enjoy the show.
What I mean is tickets freely available on a match day or avaiable to buy in the weeks before a match, other than season ticket holders, Like I said this is just in my opinion, I personally would rather have the extra seats there if needed instead of not enough seats when needed especially if we are reducing the capacity and increasing the corporate seats. Look at Juve, they play at a much smaller stadium and had to increse the prices of tickets to make it financially viable, they now have a half empty stadium each week because fans refuse to pay 4 times what we charge (ofc the team is terrible, so that dosent help either). There is also another factor to remember and that is they want to use the stadium for concerts and other sports etc and its always bigger the better when thats concerned. But in the end it will go to 60-65k because thats what the stats say is optimal /shrug
Ok I see. Now that’s a good point Mike, re extra seats if needed than not. I think I’m coming around to that idea of a slightly larger stadium if it’s to maximize on the big game days. But as a product you’re selling it doesn’t look good to market half empty stadium to potential markets. EPL stadiums are actually small but full so the atmosphere and the product to they’re selling looks good. Many EPL teams can’t fill the san siro every week. Neither can a large a fan base as Milan. I think 60-65 is great, it will always look full even on smaller game days and it’s going to be louder for the opposing teams but we can agree to disagree 🙂. The other thing to consider is with these larger stadiums like 70k capacity ones, is that it’s likely to require a third tier and most costly to repair and maintain. Iits not only about the fixed capital cost . It is why 60k seaters are more desirable .
Agree 100%. Especially since I travel to Milan every now & then to see the matches and if the stadium is “reserved” only to season ticket holders it would be PITA to get to the stadium as an “outsider”.
Was meant to say: “Agree but not 100%”. 😛
You make valid points too which make sense, and it’s a tricky decision to make, whatever the size we can both agree it needs to be built asap let’s hope it can get passed through on this public debate quickly so work can finally start.
Oh yes definitely we need to start putting shovels in the ground. That we can def agree on. This consultation has dragged on for too long. I’ll take Sesto if they’re ready tbh.